1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to: a mobile communication terminal that provides wireless communication using user information stored in an IC card detachably mounted onto the mobile communication terminal, and a computer program thereof; an IC card which is to be mounted onto the aforementioned mobile communication terminal and which stores the user information, and a computer program thereof; and a mobile communication terminal system including the aforementioned mobile communication terminal and the aforementioned IC card.
2. Related Art
In recent years, the functions available in mobile communication terminals such as cellular phones have been becoming increasingly advanced. A cellular phone having a packet communication function provides a function of downloading various kinds of digital contents such as applications, images, and music, a function of storing such various kinds of content, and a function of replaying the content.
Also, development is being advanced with regard to cellular phones onto which a User Identity Module (which will be referred to as a “UIM” hereafter) is detachably mounted (see Patent document 1, for example). Here, the UIM is an IC card for storing subscriber information (user information) with respect to a subscriber of a mobile telephone service, such as a phone number, memory dial information, etc.
With such an arrangement, the subscriber information is stored in the UIM. Upon the user mounting a his/her own UIM onto the cellular phone of another user, the user can use the other user's cellular phone as if it were his/her own cellular phone. In this case, the charges incurred for using the cellular phone, for such purposes as a telephone call, packet communication, downloading of content, etc., are charged to the user identified based upon the subscriber information stored in the UIM.
The UIM has a small memory capacity. Accordingly, the body of the contents data is stored in a memory (a storage medium such as built-in memory, a memory card, or the like) of the cellular phone. In order to protect the content, the ability to output the contents stored in the memory of the cellular phone is restricted. Specifically, the contents stored in the cellular phone cannot be used (execution of an application, display of an image, replay of music) on a different cellular phone.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-135407
With such an arrangement, let us consider a case in which the user changes his/her own mobile communication terminal due to a malfunction, model change, or the like. This leads to following problems, which reduces the ease-of-use for the user.
With such an arrangement, the user can download the contents stored in the prior cellular phone to a new cellular phone with the UIM transferred from the prior cellular phone with contents execution restrictions. However, the use of the contents requires that the contents be downloaded again from the network, which imposes a packet communication charge on the user.
As another method, the user can transfer the contents stored in the cellular phone main unit to a server on the network in order to temporarily save the contents on the server. However, downloading the contents again also imposes a charge on the user.
As a yet another method, the data can be transferred to a new cellular phone via a subscriber information management system (this method is limited to contents for which permission to transfer the contents using this method has been granted beforehand by the contents management service). This method has a problem that all the contents cannot be transferred to the new cellular phone using this method.
On the other hand, let us consider an arrangement which permits the contents to be outputted to external circuits without restrictions. Such an arrangement allows the user to transfer the contents by recording the contents on a memory medium (SD card, MMC, etc.) having a large memory capacity. However, such an arrangement leads to a risk of illegal transference, a risk of illegal copying, etc., i.e., leading to contents protection problems.